[272] B4thing in b33r

console

< Piro >

"world gone gold"

Wednesday - June 12, 2002

New Capture the Bear poster availible - support MT, buy a poster. they are cool. :P

Before i get into my typical, normal, uninteresting rantage, i think that congrats are in order for the Bioware crew on the news that Neverwinter Nights has gone gold - which means that we'll be seeing it on store shelves pretty soon. I guess Largo and Piro really didn't make it home before the game came out ^^;;

As you can see, my 'break' from Megatokyo is now over. Well, it wasn't really a break, per se - i spent most of the break working at the office, or working on a few other Megatokyo related things, and fun things like planting garden boxes out on the porch with seraphim. I've also endeavored to get ahead in strips a little, an elusive goal that still seems elusive, but the good news is that i feel much better able to forge on with Megatokyo now that i've had a little 'mental break' so to speak. Thanks for your patience, i think that some of the DPD weren't too bad (i LOVE the one i did for monday, the Cave of Evil one... i don't know why)

If you must know, each of these DPD drawings took a lot longer than i ever planned. I really have had trouble getting back into drawing. I dont know why, really - i went thru dozens of false starts with each of the drawings that went up. I guess that now when i do illustration style drawings, i feel like each image has to stand on its own and tell some sort of story. It was a good refresh for my head about the mt characters and personalities, if nothing else.

As you all probably have noted, the Capture the Bear posters are available online now. The guys from USAnime have been very supportive of MT over the past year, and i decided to let them handle the posters this time. One of the main reasons for producing these posters is that Megatokyo really does need your support right now - the best way to help out is to pick up a poster or two - all the profits from these sales go towards helping MT stay alive. The next few months are critical for me and the survival of this site, so if you feel the need to acquire some wall decoration, please buy a poster. you know me, i don't ask for support that often. Also, the sooner all of these posters are gone, the sooner i can get to the next poster design, which i plan to have in production at the end of next month, if all goes well.

If you didn't make it to A-kon, or if you want to refresh your memory of the Megatokyo Panel for some reason, run on over to Anime Tourist where you can read a transcript of the entire megatokyo panel. There are a few spoilers, embarrassing moments, and some small errors (which is my fault - Glenn sent me the draft, but i still haven't sent him my minor corrections). Its not a bad read, actually. It was a pretty good panel.

I really haven't been playing too many games lately, as you may have realized, but i DO need an outlet sometimes. One rather unusual type of doujinshi game you see these days are fighting games that feature ren'ai game characters. Queen of Hearts, Leaf Fight, Glove on Fight, etc. Right now i'm getting a real hoot out of Eternal Fighter Zero, a fighting game featuring characters from Kanon and One (both games from VisualArts). It's an absolute riot - and done with a lot of sense of humor... the idea of these cute little characters kicking the crap out of each other... You know all is right with the world when you can play as Sleepy Nayuki and whack people with a giant stuffed frog. :) Bliss...

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< Largo >

"Giving Back"

Friday - June 14, 2002

[Largo] - 11:53:00 - [link here]

Once in a while, you get the chance to give something back to world around you, and today just may be the day I get to do just that.

There is a project being ran by Intel and United Devices, Inc that is being used to help find a cure for cancer thru the use of distributed computing.

Essentially, thousands of users around the world download a small client software that uses your CPU's spare, unused cycles to compute vital data for a singular purpose. In the past this has been used for encryption cracking and for the seti@home project, but this time it's being used for something a little more practical, finding a cure for cancer.

So, to help this cause, I'm giving you this link to download the client software, once you've done this just click on this next link which will take you to the Team MegaTokyo home page for this project and sign you up on our team.

The client doesn't take any performance away from your computer and just requires you be connected to the internet every so often to send its data back to them.

At the very least, it makes a l33t screensaver, and who knows - maybe MT can actually do some good for the world in the process.

Speaking of giving back, there's a couple websites I've been wanting to plug for sometime, but being the lazy largo that I am, never got around to it.

First up is Hero Games. A long time ago, in a comic shop far far away - I was introduced to an old RPG called "Champions", very likely one of the most flexable character creation systems ever made and well suited for 'Super Hero' gaming. Ah, those were the days, red capes and over the top villians... but alas - the game vanished for awhile, which made me a sad Largo.

Then Recently I found out that Hero Games brought back and revised the Champions system with the book "HERO System - 5th Edition". Since it's come out I've spent days playing with character creation in order to perfect the perfect 350 point power armor.

For those familair with the system, I'd like to share some of the powers I came up with;

"The Needler", A high velocity slug thrower that fires 12" long spikes into the target, generally annoying said target with pain and such - RKA 3D6; Autofire (5 shots), Boostable Charges 16 x 2 clips

It's also fun to work this into a multipower with different ammo types, like.. Explosion...

I know for those of you who haven't played with the system that might seem meaningless... so um, go buy the book or something. Hero Games is actually a sweet company run by a small group of people, which in the day and age of megacorps running everything, it's nice to see that gaming can still have some of that old garage effort.

The other site I wanted to give some pluggage, is the esteemed Toriyama's World. Home of such prized things as translated Hikaru no Go.

As those of you who have found me hanging out on the Kiseido Go Server have noticed, I have a real fondness for game of Go, and while I may be no insei, I love playing the game for hours on end. So naturally, yes... I watch some Hikaru no Go, and well - so should you.

Hrm, what else... well there was that whole wedding thing I did last week, I want to thank everyone who sent us emails, congrads messages and cards, etc. It was very sw33t and we would like to thank everyone for thinking of us.